DIY Voter Pride: A Tutorial for Making Your Own "I Voted" Pin

Election day is next Tuesday. Below: a crafty how-to for making your own "I Voted" pin. But first, a little anecdote:

I received my vote by mail ballot a couple of weeks ago and was quite dismayed when I discovered that my district doesn't give "I Voted" stickers to absentee voters. I love those stickers; they're one of the reasons why I vote. I took my time to read about the measures and research the candidates and mailed in my complete ballot a few days ago. As I made the finishing touches on my choices, I turned to the Internet to voice my dissatisfaction with not receiving my "I Voted" sticker.

My buddy Alison offered two suggestions: steal someone else's or make my own. Although the thought and mental image of attempting to steal someone's "I Voted" sticker makes me smile, something tells me that it wouldn't go too well. So I went with the second option and made my own. My first attempt was a bit of a disaster:

I realized half way through that I had dark blue was not the optimal background color for a non-monotone lettering, my layout needed work, and a that back stitch is optimal for lettering. What are mistakes but lessons for the future.

Let's get on with the real deal.

Make Your Own "I Voted" Pin:
A Quick and Easy DIY

What you will need:

• Embroidery thread and needles
• Felt (preferably in patriotic colors)
• Sharp scissors
• A pencil
• Circular object for tracing needs--I used the band for a large mouthed mason jar.
• 1 Pin backing
• Fabric pen, craft glue, and card stock (not pictured)
• About 1 hour

OK, let's craft!

Get a circular object that you will use as your template for your pin. I used the inner circle of a mason jar band which measures just under 3". You can make yours bigger or smaller, but I found that 3" was the perfect size for the lettering that I had planned. Use your pencil (or fabric pen) to trace 2 circles on your felt.

Cut said circles out. If you are using sharp scissors and have relatively good motor control they should look something like this.

Take your marking tool of choice (I opted for a fabric pen this time) and make a check mark that takes up just about the whole circle on one of the felt circles.

Take your handy needle and embroidery thread (all 8 strands), and embroider the check mark. I chose red thread and a split stitch. I considered other stitches, but landed on this one because I thought it would create a nice flow...but you could use another one if you think otherwise. Here is a tutorial (from a neat embroidery reference site, FYI) for the split stitch if you need some guidance.

A bit of patience and a few even stitches later and you should have something that looks like this. I almost accomplished the even stitches part, but I think it looks pretty good anyways.

Now take up your fabric pen one more time and sketch the layout of your "I Voted" message. Your letters don't need to be super perfect, just sufficiently formed so that you can stitch them without them turning out too wonky.

Use another color of embroidery thread (I chose blue) and stitch your text. For this portion I used the back stitch; like the split stitch for the check mark, I felt that the back stitch worked well for lettering. Check out this page for a video tutorial (if needed). Tip: Short stitches are key for this portion of the project, especially with the rounded letters.

I intentionally placed some of the letters so that they overlapped the check mark; I wanted to create a more complex graphic where the different components interacted with each other. To achieve this: I just stitched over the check mark without reservation. I think it works well.

Check out your work. I think it looks pretty good; I had some difficulty with the "e" and I'm not 100% happy with it, but I still think it turned out well enough.

Take your other felt circle and determine the position of the pin backing. I find that a little North of dead center works well. Take your fabric pen and mark at least one of the holes. This is a simple step, but will make sewing the pin backing much, much easier.

Sew the pin backing to this piece of felt. I like to run the thread through the holes laterally a couple of times and then vertically in each direction. Make a secure knot of the backside of the felt to anchor the stitches in place.

Set your felt pieces aside for the moment. Take your tracing tool and apply it to a piece of card stock paper. Cut this piece out and then cut it down to size until it is smaller than the felt piece by about 1/8". Use this piece of card stock to cut out another circle.

Glue the pieces together (just a few dots will do) and then glue them to the back piece. Squeeze a few more dollops of glue onto the other side and place the front piece on top. Make sure that the back and front pieces match up: the pin backing should be horizontally level and right behind the "I". (I realized this aspect of assembly after I sandwiched the pieces together, but thankfully I had lined them up right!)

Now you'll want to use a blanket stitch to put a finished edge on your pin. When I first started making catnip buddies, I discovered that I didn't like how the first stitch turned out: performed like every other stitch in the sequence, it slanted to one side. So I developed a variation of the blanket stitch specifically for the first stitch in the sequence. I don't know if this is used by anyone else--I'm sure it is...somewhere--but I haven't researched it. At any rate here is how I do my blanket stitch.

Bring your thread up, from back to front, through the top layer only. Use the outer edge of the card stock as a guide for this stitch and all subsequent stitches.

Pull it through making sure that the tail points towards the outer edge and lies behind the cardstock. (If not, the red thread will show through the front piece a little bit.)

Bring the needle around and push it through both felt layers and though the same hole or just below it.

Pull the thread through until a small loop is formed. Then bring your needle around in a clockwise fashion and pass it through this loop.

Pull the loop closed, pulling to the right. It should look like this: a thicker stitch with a knot on top.

Now you can begin creating the blanket stitch as usual. Continue stitching around the edge of the felt (without going through the card stock). Here's a video if you need a visual.

Blanket stitch all around the edge. Here is how I finish my blanket stitch: while completing the last stitch of the series, bring the needle up from the back through the base of the first stitch and then complete it as usual.

Inset your needle underneath the top bar of the first stitch. Pull the thread through. I find that this step closes the gap that often forms between the first and last stitches; some might not find this gap very noticeable, but I see it...and not in a good way.

Make a knot and pull it snug so that it rests on the backside of the edge. Insert your needle downward through the edge and out of the back piece thusly.

Pull the needle and thread through and snip the tail close to the felt.

And...you're done! Fill out your mail in ballot (if you haven't already), drop it in the mail, and wear it with pride on November 2.

Applique Madness!

As you could probably tell from my previous posts, I've working a lot with felt and appliques lately. Here are my most recent creations:

Fried Egg iCozy

This is the first felt cozy I made. For some reason, the idea of a fried egg gracing an iPhone cozy really amuses me. So naturally, I made it. I was quite pleased by this design, but decided that any future cozies needed a flap and closure apparatus of some sort, and stitching along all edges. Hence:

Wolf Man iPhone Cozy

(A close up of the ferocious beast, and an innovation in design.)

The inspiration for this particular cozy came from an opportunity and a challenge. About a month ago--while shopping for the felt for our Christmas stockings--I found some awesome little stencil booklets. Each booklet had about 6 stencils and cost $1.50. My brain instantly went into overload with all the crafting possibilities and I bought a booklet each of monster, farm animal, dinosaur, and zoo animal stencils. The monster booklet caught my boyfriend's attention and he instantly demanded that Dracula grace his Christmas stocking.

Later that day, I mentioned that I had been collecting and creating designs for electronic cozies. Our friend, Louis, suggested that I use the monster stencils. I must admit that I had thought of this, but I had already discovered that the stencils were just slightly too big for an iPhone of iPod cozy. But he was adamant. And, once he pitched the idea to my boyfriend he was impossibly adamant as well.

(Monsters galore!)

And so I got to work trying to figure out how to 1) pick the most suitable stencil and, 2) shrink it to fit a 2"x4" square of felt. Louis and Evan had advocated for the skeleton, but I settled on the werewolf stencil for one simple reason: it was the only stencil with which I could fuse its multiple pieces and still retain the essential shape while making it just the right size.

The color palette was simple enough: wolf man had to be brown, and the only color that would accentuate his shape while standing the test of everyday use was red. Using my fabric pen, I traced the wolf man shape onto the brown felt and then carefully cut the pieces out so that I couldn't maintain the intricate details. I then used a little felt glue to set the applique in place. After the glue had dried a bit, I used a blanket stitch to anchor him in place and sew the cozy together.

50/50 Wallet

Why 50/50? Well...I didn't actually make the wallet. Rather, I bought from Island Provisions and then embellished it with my own, first-ever iron-on applique.

(What can I say, he likes squirrels.)

I'm quite proud of my new semi-self-taught skill that I learned mostly from this video. I do, however, take credit for figuring out the specific characteristics of my iron-on material and how to properly use an iron.

More Christmas Crafts: Felt Stockings!

I can't believe its been a month since my last post! Preparing Christmas gifts definitely got the better of me this year: I made a felted purse for my mom (my first felted item ever that I had to re-knit and re-felt due to the first one shrinking too much in one direction), a scarf for my kid brother and aunt, and hats for my other brother and boyfriend. They all turned out really well; hopefully I'll have pictures to post soon.

In the meantime I have pictures of the stockings that I made for myself and my boyfriend. This is the first Christmas that I spent away from my childhood homes and in my own apartment. After finding myself faced with the realization that I wouldn't have Christmas morning access to my childhood Christmas stocking, I decided to make one.

I had a hard time finding pre-cut felt that was big enough for making a good sized stocking. Then I discovered that fabric stores carry felt by the both, something that I had never thought of before, mostly because I'm new to sewing. So I bought 1/2 yard of red and 1/4 yard of white felt and got to work. To make the general shape of the stocking I drew a sock shape on a paper bag that I had split open and laid out. I then cut this out and used it as a template. I first tried using a disappearing fabric pen to trace the shape, but that didn't show up too well on the red felt. A soft graphite 2Bpencil worked much better. I traced and cut out four of these sock bits. Then I repeated the process for the white fluff portion of the stocking, but made eight of these to both hide the seam between the two pieces and give the stockings a more three dimensional top.

I worked mostly with applique and simple embroidery to embellish the stockings. Evan requested Dracula with a Santa hat, which I was able to accomplish thanks to a stencil booklet that I picked up a the fabric store. Not quite the traditional Christmas motif, but it's what he wanted. I modeled my stocking off the one that I have at my mom's house: a snowy scene complete with a snowman. The cupcake, however, is a new addition.

After embroidering our names I sewed together the fluff pieces and then attached them to the stockings. I then paired up the stocking-and-fluff pieces and sewed them together . As a final touch, I used embroidery thread to create a loop from which they could hang. Together they took about two weeks to make, but I think the final product is definitely worth it.

Holiday Crafting

The holiday season is upon us. Although I've been working to start and finish hand-knit items for my family and friends, I've also been experimenting with my felt creations. I'm quite proud of my latest work.

Last year I bought a giant rawhide bone for my mom's dog and made a catnip pouch for our cat, Oscar. I'm pretty sure that it was the first time that he had encountered catnip, and he couldn't quite decide whether or not he liked it. He had a curious and somewhat distressed, but interested, look on his face when he took his first whiff of the green stuff. He even played with the pouch a little bit, but never got so excited as to pursue it when it fell out of reach.

But I've kept on making catnip toys (mostly because I still have catnip left over), but also because I enjoy the process. I'm also driven by a little economical incentive: I just know that there are others out there who--like me--give their pets a little gift for Christmas. I hope to help fill a niche with these holiday catnip buddies:

The Gingerbread Man Catnip Buddy

(I just put him up for sale on Etsy)

And in trying to be fair and equal opportunistic, I also made a catnip buddy for those who celebrate Hanukkah:

Star of David Catnip Pouch

(on Etsy as well)

I've also been busy experimenting with combining embroidered felt pillows with magnets. The holidays have presented me with a perfect opportunity to play with shapes, colors and themes. So far I've made two sets:

(on Etsy soon)

Each set presented its own minor roadblocks. I wanted to maintain a balance of color and variety of motifs in both. But I have to admit that the Hanukkah set was the most difficult. I had a hard time thinking of more than 3 motifs that would be both representation of the holiday and aesthetically pleasing. I'm happy with what I came up with.

Right now I'm working on making Christmas stockings for the apartment (finished product pics of those to come!). I'm also toying with the idea of making Christmas felt tree ornaments--one of which I already have nearly complete. Lots of projects. Lots of projects...

Project Diary: Fall Frenzy Magnets

Fall Frenzy Felt Magnets

(yay for alliteration!)

I've been thinking about making these for quite some time now. (I've been a bit busy--and lazy-- lately, but I finally got them done.) Just bits of felt, scrap pieces of yarn for stuffing, some embroidery for detail, felt glue, and left over magnets from when I made these:

I'm quite pleased with how the felt magnets turned out. I like the idea of having soft, plushy creatures hanging out on the fridge. So far, I've decided to make sets for Christmas and Hanukkah, and one with a Sea Creatures theme. I hope to sell them through my etsy shop or at the next Art Murmur in Oakland.